7 go | HUMANITY AMIDST CONFLICTS TOPIC 3: INTERFACE BETWEEN INTERNATIONAL AND DOMESTIC LAWS ON ARMED CONFLICT Presentor: P ATTY. SEDFREY M. CANDELARIA Chairman, Governmentof the Republic ofthe PhilippinesJoint Monitoring Committee/ 4A 3a As Dean, School Affairs, Ateneo de Manila, College of Law Atty. Sedfrey Candelaria explained to the body the Comprehensive Agreementon Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL). CARHRIHLis a documentwhicharose out of the Issues of Belligerency and peace negotiations between the governmentofthe IHL Applicability Republic of the Philippines and the Communist Another matter emphasized by Atty. Candelaria Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army (CCP/ are the issues of belligerency which at one time NPA)and National Democratic Front (NDF), and beleaguered the peace process. He notedthat even signed in 1998. CARHRIHL is nota treaty butit internationaldecision would haverecognizedthat is one entered into between a State and Non-State even in the context of an armed conflict entity, thus, not being covered by the Vienna domestically, IHL principles must apply. At the Convention on the Law ofTreaties. It is nota law; contextofthe documentitself, there are respective but, it may be a source ofpolitical commitments- legal processes that are involved. political commitmentparticularly on the side of government.It could have legal consequencesfor Below werethe questions asked: the governmentbecausethe governmentis a State “First, what standardofjustice or due processwill Party to various HumanRights and Humanitarian apply to the CPP/NPA/NDFPeople’s Court? Law Instruments, and the governmentis duty boundto enforce the obligations. It is the interface “Next pointis - processing ofcomplaints against that Atty. Candelaria would like to focus on State agents and government duty and becausethe interface is not so simple where people obligations. How far could complaints against nowlookat the ground on how enforcement may State agents be processed by the government be donein accordancewith the legal and judicial through its own legal and judicial processes?” processes. There were reservations from certain In this regard, he stressed political will. The most parties, such as: how can you enter into an recent examples of extra-legal killings or extra- agreementwith a non-State entity; and, what are judicial killings and enforced disappearances the consequencesfor this? placed the government underscrutinyby thefact-